Photo From Bike Cops For Kids Blog, click here for linkThose of us in North Minneapolis who are--arguably--benefitting the most from the accomplishments of MPD Police Chief Dolan have a strong interest in seeing Dolan reappointed.
Recently, there was a heated back-and-forth discussion on the ubiquitous Minneapolis Issues List about whether the chief should be reappointed, click here for a link to that discussion. The way the conversation went, in summary, a guy named Tom Cleland wrote some rough stuff about Dolan from Cleland's leafy suburban paradise where he has all the livelong day to critique brave Minneapolis Police from his ultra-safe McParadise. In response, some individuals who are actually doing the heavy lifting of making North Minneapolis better, called out Cleland on his organic, free-range b.s.
In any case...active and involved citizens are grateful for the work of Dolan. Consider, if you will, this year there were 19 murders in Minneapolis. Contrast that with...
...the City of Chicago, where there were 453 murders. That's a ratio of roughly 24 to 1.
Dolan is not a perfect human being, nor a perfect police chief. But his ability to save the lives of Minneapolis citizens and make our neighborhoods safe for decent people--even what USED TO BE the roughest neighborhoods in North Minneapolis--outweighs everything else. If there is a rank over and above Police Chief--such as True Blue Saint--I say appoint Dolan to that position, too. My biggest fear is some McMurder Metropolis--like Chicago--will offer this magnificent man 4 times his current salary and a lovely lake home to come and solve THEIR deadly, bloody problems.
Please, Chief Dolan, NEVER LEAVE US!
Here, for Johnny Northside readers, is the content of a document which has been circulating in various places including the Minneapolis Issues List. Here are the significant accomplishments under Chief Dolan’s tenure:
Appointed: May 1, 2006 (interim), January 1, 2007 (appointment)
Crime:
Overall crime has decreased since May 2006
1. Homicides have decreased 60%
2. Robberies have decreased 47%
3. Violent crimes have decreased 37%
4. Property crimes have decreased 24%
5. CSCR/rapes have decreased 30%
(I should point out one of the Green Party values is "feminism." One would think cutting assaults on women would weigh heavily with Green Party loyalists)
6. Aggravated assaults have decreased 28%
7. Burglaries have decreased 20%
8. Larcenies/thefts have decreased 16%
9. Auto thefts have decreased 53%
10. Arsons have decreased 40%
11. Property crimes have decreased by 24%
Significant Public Safety Events:
1. 35W Bridge collapse - Received national and international praise for public safety response.
2. Response to the Iowa floods- Sent 30 officers to assist flood victims and local law enforcement.
3. Republican National convention; Along with St. Paul Police successfully coordinated the largest public safety response in the history of the State of Minnesota.
4. Presidential Obama Inauguration; Sent 56 officers to Washington D.C. to assist in security detail for this historic event.
Accountability:
1. Instituted new a department Discipline Matrix.
2. Implemented Early Intervention System (EIS) which will start taking referrals January 2010.
3. Instituted online citizen complaint reporting capability.
4. Police Executive Research Forum IAU/Internal Affairs Unit Audit 2008.
5. Critical Incident Response Audit conducted in 2007 by former U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones.
6. Use of force review process intergraded through records management (CAPRS).
7. Created new Audit function within Internal Affairs Unit.
8. Created Chief’s Citizen Advisory Council.
9. Federal Mediation Agreement; More action items accomplished under Chief Dolan in 18 months than in previous 3.5 years and two police chiefs.
Disciplining Within MPD
1. 64 items were voted green: 58 of these were voted green during Chief Dolan’s tenure
2. 39 items were completed but never voted green for varying reasons
3. 16 items left unresolved for varying reasons
Discipline ranging from letter of reprimand to termination was imposed in 103 cases (IAU/Internal affairs Unit, CRA/Civilian review Authority combined).
1. Of the 103 cases, 19 employees were either terminated or resigned as a result of their sustained Internal Affairs Unit case.
2. Of the 103 cases where discipline was imposed, grievances were filed by the union in 44 cases. Of these 44 cases, 15 were settled between the MPD and the union. In one of these cases discipline was reduced by an arbitrator while others are still pending.
Hiring & Diversity:
The MPD is at its highest level of overall diversity in its history (18.81%).
1. January 2006: 17.69%
2. October 2009: 18.81%
159 officers were hired during Chief Dolan’s tenure. Of those, 49 were people of color; equal to 28.9% of the hired group.
Hired 68 Community Service Officers, of these 68, 47% were persons of color and 26.5% were female.
Created first ever Comprehensive Diversity Plan for the Department.
Established Multi-cultural Community Recruitment Team.
First ever minority recruitment marketing plan.
Technology:
Rollout of Shotspotter in Precinct 3 & 4. (JNS blog would like to add that Shotspotter has been a technological miracle, and one of the best moves this city ever made)
Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD) and Mobile Data Computer (MDC) upgrades.
Expanded public safety cameras in Precinct 4.
License plate recognition.
Handheld electronic citation system for all traffic unit cars
Replaced old micro cassette recorders with digital audio recorders for all investigators
Increased number of Tasers in use by patrol from 84 to 280. Of that, 81 are equipped with Tasercams. All new officers hired are now issued a Taser and Tasercam.
Received grant funds to transition VHS squad video cameras to new digital system.
Increased number of department squad cameras and outfitted all primary precinct squads. Total number of department cameras is 133 which is equivalent to 70% of our marked fleet.
Major Department Initiatives:
Re-established the Juvenile Division.
Re-established the School Resource Officer Unit.
Re-established the MPD Gang Enforcement Team.
Acquired Hamilton School to be used as a training center & base for SWAT/Special Weapons and tactics and the Special Operations Division.
Establishment of Strategic Information Crime Management (SICM); better track/dissemination of intelligence information than we ever have before.
Developed Financial Operations Group with a Finance Director; this to better track spending, grants, etc.
Merged Traffic Control into the MPD.
Re-design of department squads and re-branding of MPD with new motto, To Protect with Courage, To Serve with Compassion.
Department Awards and Accomplishments:
Minneapolis Metropolitan area named “Safest City in America” by Forbes magazine October 2009.
2009 National Night Out Award for being the top-ranked city in our category (#1 for cities with population over 300,000 people).
2009 IACP/International Association of Chiefs of Police Webber Seavey Award – Juvenile Division.
2009 Forensic Crime Lab ASCLD (American Society of Crime Lab Directors) ISO certification.
2009 IACP/Cisco Community Policing Award for our Court watch Program
2007 MN Chiefs of Police Honor for 35W bridge collapse.
2006 IACP/ITT Community Policing Award.
(End of document)
(Keep up the great work, Chief Dolan!)
5 comments:
Amen. I know that there are a lot of people in the community that have problems with the MPD but it's important to remember that the chief has to work with many different parties, the police union, the Mayor's office, the real and putative leaders of the community. He also has to work with the people he has, he can't change what's happened in the past. Dolan is the best hope for the North Side's continued improvement. He gets the problems and prioritizes them. He's smart about using data and existing social networks. Anybody who came from somewhere else would see that to keep their job, they would only need to focus on South Minneapolis, because that's where the political clout is in this city. Dolan for various reasons is an advocate for North. It would be a disaster to lose him.
Great post. Regarding your Chicago vs. Minneapolis homicide stats, a more fair comparison would be to look at the per capita murder rates in each city, since Chicago is a much larger city (~8X) than Minneapolis. Doing that, Chicago's homicide rate was 3X higher than Minneapolis, which is still a great illustration of how impressive a year 2009 was for the City of Minneapolis vs Chicago.
I would just like to add that not only is crime rate lower than Chicago, no matter how you calculate it, but Minneapolis police officers are better looking than Chicago officers.
I love that picture.
@ Anon 1208am - I couldn't agree more! I got to start my first Monday of 2010 in the presence of Chief Dolan and Officer Klukow - what could be better??!!
There was also this JNS post that is very relevant, about the decrease in youth violence.
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